Care To Share A Book Recommendation?

[jyl]

I'm interested in hearing some of your recommendations for good books that you've read or are reading. Share some ideas for the next bedside read, and let's find out a little about what fellow PP'ers are interested in.

Please post Title, Author, What's it about, Why do you like it? If it's a particularly hard-to-find book, please mention the source. Doesn't have to be car-related (although one I'll kick this off with just happens to be). Fiction, fact, fantasy, anything goes. (And a prize for the first manly-man to fess up to Memoirs of a Geisha.)

Okay, here's two I've been reading lately. One is a must-have for motorsports fans, the other is specialized enough to fascinate a few and put everyone else to sleep.

Title: Formula 1 Technology
Author: Peter Wright
What: Exploration of F1 technology, with some history (author was aerodynamicist at Team Lotus who developed early ground effect cars, T87, T88 etc.) but concentrates on current (2001) state of the art.
Why: Lots of fascinating details, from how F1 rain tires work to the simulation software used by the teams. The section on banned technologies shows why F1 designers had to be constrained, lest F1 become a war of 300 mph robots with the drivers smothered under 6 g loads while software packages compete for victory. But intead F1 design has been shunted down an evolutionary dead-end, with each year's cars just more exhaustively refined variants on a fixed theme with almost no relevance to road car design. You can tell the author doesn't like the current situation, and it gets you to thinking about alternatives.
Also: Get it from the SAE website for a discount.

Title: Why Stock Markets Crash: Critical Events In Complex Financial Systems
Author: Didier Sornette
What: In-depth discussion of research, mostly by the author, on financial market bubbles and crashes.
Why: Well, you've got to be really interested in the topic . . . this is one of those books that is read in fits and starts, because it's really too dense for me to plow through in one sitting. Anyway I'm finding that I need to absorb one concept, and then think about it for a while. For example, one early claim is that market crashes are preceded by periods of extremely high serial and pair-wise correlation - prices are climbing day after day, with seemingly no distinction between assets with strong or weak fundamentals. This spring in the stock market was an interesting time to think about that claim.

[esther]

Author: Terry Goodkind

Titles: (The Sword of Truth series)

Wizard's First Rule
Stone of Tears
Blood of the Fold
Temple of the Winds
Soul of the Fire
Faith of the Fallen
The Pillars of Creation
Naked Empire

Excellent quick reads if you like sci-fi/fantasy

[WOODPIE]

A sentimental favorite of mine:

Jesus Mary Delahunty by David MacSweeney


A fiction of one man's futile search for the meaning of life (maybe) and the occasional good time. Full of dark humor and great Irish curses. Copyright date is 1984, Viking Press. Used book store maybe?

Ed

[BGCarrera32]

"Cold Zero- Inside the FBI hostage rescue team" by Special Agent Christopher Whitcomb. A real eye opener and good read about the elite special forces of the FBI (which I didn't even know existed). Covers the Talladega prison riot, high profile drug raids, Ruby Ridge, and the WACO mess. He was on the team that was dispatched to all of these, and pretty much says what he thinks about how a lot of it was mishandled and what was done right. Definelty not a stupid conspiracy theory read but rather an account of these events from the sniper's perspective.

I got my copy at Barnes and Noble.

[pearldrum]

I am a big fan of sci-fi

Ben Bova is a great author

Mars
Return to Mars
Jupiter
Death Dream

All very good books, and aren't very "far fetched" The stories could happen...soon. The first 3 are about Humans exploring other planets. Death Dream is about virtual reality.

Another author is:Orson Scott Card

The ender's game series:
Ender's Game
Speaker for the dead
Xenocide
Children of the mind, there are a few more

These also are sci-fi; about a child genius that was bred to destroy an entire alien species that was threatening Earth.

Also for Porsche reading "Ultimate porsche 911" and "Ultimate porsche 924/944/968" are very good. I'm not sure of the author.

[jyl]

I've gotten lost in William Gibson, Larry Niven, Arthur C. Clarke, among other SF. SF is great stuff! I have a hard time finding a SF paperback to read nowadays, though, because I haven't kept up with the new authors. Maybe I need to subscribe to some SF mags - is Analog still around?

[ZAMIRZ]

Author: Anthony Burgess

Title: A Clockwork Orange

Why I like: Cool vocabulary, interesting plot, not too long (a hair under 200 pages) and an insightful message about why evil is just as important as good and they need to coexist with each other in order for humans and the world to work properly.

[TSNAPCRACKLEPOP]

"the dance of deception: pretending and truth telling in womens' lives" harriet lerner phd. if you wonder why you do not understand why womeN say one thing, mean another, and do another, this is for you. especially good if you have been "blindsided and dumped". ALSO, PART OF A TRILOGY : "DANCE OF ANGER, DANCE OF LOVE, DANCE OF LOVE HA HA, A 4 PART TRILOGY!!! FIRST EDITIONS IN THE EIGHTIES, IN THE SELF HELP SECTION, PSHCHOLOGY.

FOR ENTERTAINMENT, "THE LENGTHENING SHADOW OF DR. ANDREW TAYLOR STILL" A HISTORY OF HOW OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE FOUGHT THE AMA IN THE US FOR ACCEPTANCE AS A HEALTH CARE DISCIPLINE WITHOUT DRUGS AND SURGERY.

[Jeff]

A Painted House by John Grisham.

It is not one of his patented lawyer books. It is about growing up on a cotton farm in the 1940s. It is very suspenseful (if that's even a word). Interesting characters and events.

[Moneyguy1]

I'm kind of an eclectic reader; I like the sci-fi authors mentioned by others, but I have been fascinated by a series by an author who goes by the name of Robert Doherty; the "Area 51" series. Well written, mile a minute action and mindless fun, although the basis "seems" to explain a lot of the mysticism attached to ancient history, UFOs, you name it. These can be found at places like Bookmans used books for half price and are worth the couple of bucks each. But, start at the beginning of the series; it's more fun that way. Also try an author Jack McDevitt "Moonfall", "Eternity Road" (Very good), "Ancient Shores". If you like more classic science fiction, anything by Cordwainer Smith or James Tiptree Jr, two writers from the 60s.

[dd74]

Man, there's a lot of Sci Fi fans on this board. Very cool.

However, I'm reading "True History of The Kelly Gang." A 19th Century "creative non-fiction" book set in 19th-century Australia; it's about Ned Kelly, an Irish imigrant/prisoner-type who was one of the country's most notorious and violent thieves.

Sort of the Australian answer to Bonnie and Clyde.

I highly recommend it, especially for the P.O.V., which is Kelly's own, complete with improper grammar. Excellent stuff!

[Z-man]

Some of my suggestions:

Left Behind and the subsequent books in the series by Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins. Interesting views on "the end times."

Speed Secrets,Inner Speed Secrets, and More Speed Secrets by Russ Bently. Great books on performance driving.

Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. (And the other books in the trilogy: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish, Mostly Harmless, Life, the Universe and Everything) Really funny stuff written by a very whitty, British writer.

The Dragon King Trilogy by Stephen Lawhead. Great fiction writer. (Also wrote the Pendragon Cycle, and the Song of Albion Trilogy)

Oh, and The Bible NIV version. I highly recommend it!

-Zoltan.

[tabs]

TITLE: Mein Kampf

AUTHOR: Adolf Hitler

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:A how to book on achieving political success, a must read for any potential conquerors. Very Inspiring.

REVIEWERS COMMENTS: "Hitler was a right on guy" Charles Manson

AVAILABILITY: Any Aryan Nation Bookstore.

[Jeff964]

"The Art of Seduction" and "The 48 Laws of Power" by Robert Greene


"Infectious Greed" by Frank Partnoy

[jyl]

I'll add a couple more, since I was thinking how long it's been since I have been in Paris . . .

Title: A Moveable Feast
Author: Ernest Hemingway
What: Narrative of his early years in Paris as a young and poor writer. Crisp, evocative writing. Sometimes, after you've waded through some farfetched story written in endless flowery sentences, it is nice to read something clean and short.

Title: Between Meals; An Appetite For Paris
Author: A.J. Liebling
What: Narrative of his early years in Paris as a young Hemingway wanna-be. Liebling is one of the great New Yorker writers who covered war, boxing, food, and the press with elegant honesty. Much of his work is out of print but this small book is still available. Other good Liebling books are "The Sweet Science" (one of the classic books on boxing), "Liebling Abroad" (collection of his WWII reporting) and "Liebling At Home" (collection of his US journalism).

[TimT]

Amir... The Clockwork Orange............... YES

Moveable Feast.... YES

Kerouac.... On the road....YES

Catcher in the Rye.. YES.

Ayn Rand.. YES but a bit tedious...

Tolkien....... YES

Hunter S Thompson...... YES....



The above would be the classics......

Ill be gone when the classics of our generation are defined..

[dd74]

Originally posted by TimT
Ill be gone when the classics of our generation are defined..

I think they have been defined...

"The Fight Club," (I forget the author's name), and

anything by Brett Easton Ellis.

[CJFusco]

"The Fight Club," (I forget the author's name),

Chuck Palnihuk (I might have butchered the spelling)

"anything by Brett Easton Ellis."

He only wrote one worthwhile book, IMHO: AMERICAN PSYCHO. I also suffered through THE RULES OF ATTRACTION, which was painful.

My favorites are Vonnegut, Orwell, D. Adams, Hunter Thompson, Tom Wolfe, Tolkien, Steve King, Robert Pirsig, Howard Zinn

I am currently reading Dostoevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. There are some pretty interesting concepts here, but I am unsure of what I think of the book as a whole... but I do have a good 150 pages to go. Ask me again in a couple days

[Hockey fan]

[i]

I am currently reading Dostoevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. There are some pretty interesting concepts here, but I am unsure of what I think of the book as a whole... but I do have a good 150 pages to go. Ask me again in a couple days [/B]

That was a book I struggled to get into. Felt like I should read it and after finishing, a few days went by and I found myself thinking about it more and more. I guess that's the mark of a great book.

Just finished Last of the Mohicans - great book.

My taste is all over the board, for example I would next recommend A Confederacy of Dunces. Some people hate it and some love it. I thought it was brilliant.

Also just finished Pickup by Charles Willeford - great noir crime novel.

Also always enjoy reading either Cannery Row or the Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck.

Jeff

[tabs]

Pseudo Intellectuals....Not an orginal thinker among you...all confined to a box of whats considered to be the Popular Favorites....tell me something new not some hackneyed well worn verse...Show me something where you reach for the stars, reach out of the box of conformity.